Latest releases reviewed

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Devils & Dust Columbia/Sony
****

Always an event act, despite genuine down-home protestations to the contrary, Bruce Springsteen delivers a firm stylistic riposte to The Rising, a good record weighed down by Big Themes. Devils & Dust is closer in tone to Nebraska and Tunnel of Love than any other of his recent albums. Its strong, emotional songs are still informed by fundamental human needs and muted by disgust at how a person's potential can be casually stubbed out by a wrong turn in the road. And Springsteen is still Everyman, a source of narrative wisdom while all around are losing the plot. It won't be the most cheerful album you'll hear this year, but doubt, loss of pride, failure and acceptance of what few choices life might throw at you aren't cheerful topics. www.brucespringsteen.net

Tony Clayton-Lea

HOT HOT HEAT
Elevator Sire
****

With their debut, Make Up the Breakdown, the Canadian quartet laid an early claim to the spirit of British post-punk; since then, everyone from The Killers to The Bravery have been running riot all over the early 1980s, but there's no sign here that Hot Hot Heat have gone off the boil. Guitarist Dante DeCaro has quit the band, but with new guitarist Luke Paquin on board, the HHH train is firmly back on the rails, and steaming ahead with such confident, catchy tunes as Running Out of Time, Goodnight Goodnight, Island of Honest Men and Middle of Nowhere. Those XTC comparisons still apply on Ladies and Gentlemen, while You Owe Me an IOU and Pickin' It Up evoke some of the nuttier nuggets from the era. These supercharged pop-punk tunes will hit you like a backdraft from the past. www.hothotheat.com

Kevin Courtney

THE GO-BETWEENS
Oceans Apart Lo-Max
****

When it seems as if rock has lost all its hope and glory, it's heartening to know that Robert Forster and Grant McLennan are still making music to soothe furrowed, middle-aged brows. Always a critics' favourite, The Go-Betweens have practically made a career out of underachieving, but Oceans Apart sees them hitting yet another creative peak, and holding firm to that fine balance between both songwriters' distinctive styles. Forster's light, literate rock (Here Comes a City, Born to a Family) is the dominant force here, but McLennan's folk-brushed ballads (Finding You, No Reason to Cry) add depth and shade. Boundary Rider, Lavender, Darlinghurst Nights, The Statue and This Night's for You stand alongside the band's finest work from the 1980s, and if these songs sound just a little bit out of time, they certainly have a strong, aromatic sense of place. www.go-betweens.net

Kevin Courtney

A FRAMES
Black Forest Sub Pop
****

It clanks and grinds without mercy. Steam valves hiss through it with spite. And when the industrial theme to Black Forest is reprised to finish the third album by Seattle art-punks the A Frames, it has become so distressed and corroded you can barely make out its snarling mantra: "No burgers, no sports, no jokes/Civilization was a hoax." It's the end of the world again. Still, the tremendously scuzzy and airless command of doomsday prophet/guitarist Erin Sullivan also carries an unexpected pop sensibility. One part Kraftwerk to two parts The Fall, rapid-fire songs such as Galena, Death Train, Memoranda and U Boat have melodies ground between greasy cogs, their guitar hooks wailing out like warning sirens. Striking just the right balance between chaos and cool, Black Forest makes for a nasty, apocalyptic and bristling listen. www.subpop.com

Peter Crawley

THE BOXER REBELLION
Exits Mercury
***

Alan McGee's transatlantic proteges will already be sick of the Oasis comparisons. Understandably so. The Boxer Rebellion are better looking, they rock harder and, though they mightn't admit it, they're more in touch with their feminine side. And, unlike Definitely Maybe, Exits is not a pop album; it flits between seismic blues-rock juggernauts (the brash single, All You Do Is Talk) and tender, atmospheric ballads (the stunning We Have This Place Surrounded), all slow growers rather than must-have ringtones. Among the reverb and feedback is the band's strongest yet weakest link: the soulful tones of Nathan Nicholson. This technically superb vocalist rocks like early Liam and croons like Mark Greaney, but desperately needs to find his own voice. Nevertheless, despite crying out for some true originality or a Live Forever-like hook, Exits is a very fine debut indeed. www.theboxerrebellion.net

Johnnie Craig